Special Issue of Communication Theory“Succeeding Failure: openings in communication and media studies”

Succeeding Failure: openings in communication and media studies is thetitle of a special journal issue planned for Communication Theory. Thisissue will be guest edited by Briankle G. Chang and Garnet C. Butchart ofthe Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts,Amherst.

“Failure” typically implies a kind of breakdown, defeat, or impasse.However, “failure” may also be read as a productive concept, one thatindicates an opening rather than a closure, a point of departure ratherthan a terminus. For example, whenever one thing is said but another isheard, it is the failure of, or discord within, such an exchange thatenables one to question the possibility of communication to begin with.In this sense, failure succeeds. This special issue invites criticalessays that interrogate the ways in which failure may open onto andsucceed in generating innovative responses to pressing questions oftheory, politics, and ethics as they relate to communication and mediastudies. Topics for critical reflection may include, but are not limitedto:

• Aesthetics and arts• Globalization and media• Social interaction• Identity and ethnicity• Consciousness and language• Subjectivity• Freedom, privacy, and citizenship• Hermeneutics• Being and presence• Alienation, recognition, and community• Event, symptom, and truth• Representation and ideology

Regardless of topic, submitted essays must offer a critical interrogationof the concept of failure as a productive entry point into thecontemporary study of communication and media. Manuscripts must conformto the guidelines of Communication Theory and be received by May 15, 2006to be considered for this issue.

The manuscript should include a title page with complete contactinformation (address, telephone, FAX, and email), as well as a briefbiography (full name, highest earned academic degree, institutiongranting that degree, current academic title) for each author.Manuscripts must conform to the specifications of the Publication Manualof the American Psychological Association (5th ed.), and authors shouldverify that the reference list is complete and in appropriate form.